Vehicle speed sensors are frequently expensive and require power, a dedicated communication line, or both. Thus, these wire connections for the vehicle speed sensors require substantial infrastructure (and hence investment) in order to widely proliferate speed sensors. It would be helpful to have a vehicle speed sensor that was self-powered so that it does not require a wire connection for power. In addition, it would also be helpful to have a vehicle sensor that does not require a wire connection to communicate its information.
Vehicle speed sensors usually have very specific mounting requirements. Some are buried in the road pavement; others must be mounted very close to the vehicle lane on a separate pole. It would be very helpful to have a speed sensor with a long sensing range, enabling it to be mounted in many different locations and still work effectively.
Self-powered speed sensors are usually very bulky. They require large solar panels and lots of batteries for backup power. Often, they are too bulky and weigh too much to be installed on existing light poles or sign posts. It would be helpful to have a self-powered speed sensor that used very little power, shrinking the amount of batteries required and reducing the load on the pole.
Current vehicle speed sensing equipment measures the speed of one vehicle at a time. It would be helpful to measure the speed of multiple vehicles at once on a section of road while distinguishing vehicle direction and whether or not the vehicle was using a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane.
Many vehicle speed sensors are difficult to install and calibrate. It would be helpful to have a speed sensor that is self-calibrating and could be installed in a matter of minutes.